Marketing Giant Threatens to Pull Internet Ads Over Trash Content

To begin with, Unilever is a huge transnational corporation, which is well known to donate heavily to Democrats. On Monday, the corporate Behemoth warned social media companies like Facebook and YouTube that censorship is the name of the new game, i.e. that it would stop advertising on their platforms via ads if the respective companies fail to “combat” (as in censor), let me quote: “fake news, hate speech and divisive content”.

“Unilever will not invest in platforms or environments that do not protect our children or which create division in society, and promote anger or hate. We will prioritize investing only in responsible platforms that are committed to creating a positive impact in society”

Last year, Unilever spent 9 billion dollars marketing its brands, the likes of Knorr, Lipton and Dove. Keith Weed said that consumers are very worried about “fake news” and “Russians influencing the U.S. election” and not so much about about online advertising measurement issues. To no one’s surprise, here’s Facebook’s official position:

“We fully support Unilever’s commitments and are working closely with them”

and the same goes for Twitter.

Welcome to our dystopian future, where globalist multinational mega corporations have the power to pressure other globalist multinational mega corporations to effectively implement what amounts to global mass censorship. I realize that in theory this sounds ” like a fine idea”, but if you read between the lines, especially the quote about the 2016 election, the real point is to censor all conservative points of view and allow any leftist, anti-Trump message, including name calling, character assignation or any other negative statements. The liberal mantra of “speech is free as long as we agree with it” will continue. Unilever is no different. Who in their company decides which comments are objectionable? Would be interesting to find out.

Fake news? Will Unilever cease advertising in The Washington Post and New York Times? Remember when one of those bits of alleged journalism wrote that ‘Hillary was going to turn Texas blue,’ among other fake news gems. Spare us your hypocrisy and oozing self righteousness Unilever. You can always advertise on Snap, where users have to get an allowance from their parents in order to buy anything.

Censorship is a vile and pernicious thing … and now these big advertisers are trying to go beyond what even Google censors, and try to create their own version of reality — for those willing to join it. Thanks … but, no thanks.

This is not about ISIS videos or pedophilia. This is about the leftist nuts in social media boycotting brands because they have ads that run with conservative or libertarian content. That’s it. Leftists no longer care about free speech. They are resorting to their historical M.O., which is to threaten, be violent towards, and censor speech that doesn’t forward the collective.

I think it’s ridiculous to expect YouTube to put your ads only next to content you approve of. This isn’t a print magazine. It’s millions of videos cycling with millions of ads. If you don’t want your ad appearing next to speech you deem “sexist” or “racist”, which is usually objective, then don’t advertise on YouTube. The pressure is coming from the other side too – the civil liberties crowd. Watch out for government to create a Content Neutrality law that tells YouTube that they can’t turn off monetization on videos because of political speech. I know exactly where this is heading. Where ‘news content’ must meet the political viewpoint(s) of your deep-pockets advertisers.

The concept of “hate speech” is un-American. No speech can be hate speech. Short of successful incitement or certain classes of extreme pornography, no words should ever be off limits. What is being proposed here is censorship. OK. Facebook et al are private companies. They are also de-facto monopolies. If they can’t be open to all by choice, they should be forced into it with regulation.